With the closing of GenOn’s coal-fired power plant in north Old Town this week, one wonders how the buy local crowd will power their homes? How will they, in good conscience, flick on that light switch knowing the juice isn’t coming from somebody down the street?

Why don’t billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayor Bill Euille and the chattering classes care about good, blue-collar, middle-class jobs for Alexandria? Is Alexandria becoming an outsourcing, 1-percenter, Mitt Romney fantasyland where all the good blue-collar jobs are shipped out of town?

One worries, are chain stores coming next? The horror! Maybe, just maybe, with the closing of this plant, the hyperlocal group might discover there are benefits to eschewing the silly theory of buying local.